A Milestone on the Journey

This Sunday we were so excited that four of the teens from our Life Group ministry got baptized! This was our first time being at a baptism here in Brazil, but the best part was being part of the teens growing in their faith to get to this point.

This is Kellen, her dad is praying for her.

And Marielle

Jessica....

And Josue - this was especially touching and we have been able to see him especially develop and grow.

Picking a star fruit from the tree in the church yard afterwards.

It has been such a privilege to be part of the these teen's lives and walk! Our co-leader will now be the main leader and we are praying that God will continue to work in their hearts!

The countdown continues: 1 1/2 weeks until we leave for Manaus, 3 1/2 weeks until we're in New Jersey!!

SO much going on!

Wow! There is SO much to do to get ready to go to the States! My to-do list is literally 5 pages long and it is a celebration each time we cross something off. I LOVE crossing things off!

We'll be going to the States Aug 22nd, but we won't be leaving from Anapolis. We really wanted to spend a few days getting to know Asas's biggest northern base, Manaus, before we went to the States, so we bought our tickets to the States from Manaus. Finally this past week, we were able to meet with Asas's leadership to decide when we could leave Anapolis to go to Manuas and they said we could go in the beginning of August. However, with so much to do before going to the States, we decided that Aug 10th is the earliest we can go and are in the process of booking our tickets. So, we have exactly 3 weeks between now and saying goodbye to Anapolis until Jan 5th. Although there will be lots of unknowns and stresses from traveling over the next months, we're really excited and can't wait to see you all again!!

Meanwhile, this week we had Bobby become sick.....sick as a dog in fact! I was actually pretty sure he was arriving at his end for a few hours, but I was able to put of my Moody classed into practical use. In college I took a class on tropical diseases where we had to learn how to give a shot, so I gave my first ones ever on Bobby and he's feeling much better now!

Also, this week our car decided it would be fun to take a get-away at the spa.....aka mechanic shop :( A hose broke and the car's in Goiania getting fixed....meanwhile we're a biker couple, getting around only on Jeyson's motorcycle! You should see us getting home with the groceries! We also have some house repairs going on. Our house had some issues that the builder had to fix. Of course everything here in Brazil takes longer, so finally his guy is out working on somethings. This involved taking ALL of our stuff out of each room at a time to get the walls worked on. Today is the last day and everything is getting wrapped up.

Our cat hid under the bed the WHOLE time the workers were here, but when the left his curiosity got the best of him!

Lastly, for fun we had our friends Andres, Camila, Lauro, and Rose over for dinner since soon Andres and Camila will move to Manaus! I made some easy fruit-kabobs for dessert with a cream cheese dipping sauce and everyone was so impressed! A fun evening to top off a busy week.

Recent Happenings

These past days have been jam packed and I haven't had the chance to blog until now. Here's a little catch up on what we've been up to.

On the Fourth of July we decided it would be fun to have a little celebration, expatriate style. We love the States and all that July 4th stands for, not to mention that American bbqs are a lot of fun. So, we invited over a few of our Brazilian (and Argentine) friends and lit the grill.
We made all typical American stuff - burgers, corn on the cob, mac n cheese, etc. My friend Camila was so funny about the mac n cheese. When I brought it out to the table and told everyone what it was, Camila said, "Oh! The famous American macaroni and cheese!!" She went on to explain that she had seen an American sitcom episode where a guy needed to by a box of man and cheese for his fourth of July party but all of the stores were sold out. Camila was very excited to see that it really is a real food in the American kitchen and that I also served it on July 4th!
Part of the group is above. We had a lot of fun to share a little of my culture and I hope to do this every year we're in Brazil!

For the past week we've been especially busy since it's Asas's yearly week for new candidates. The candidates spend 10 days here doing everything from flights to interviews. Several of the candidates are from Columbia and Venezuela so they don't speak Portuguese. Jeyson was asked to help by going on flights with these men as they were evaluated. Jeyson sat in the back and translated for the flight instructors/evaluators. Jeyson enjoyed using his language skills in this way. Also, by going back on these very first flights, Jeyson realized just how much he himself has grown in his skills since 2003 when he was a candidate! He's a shot that Jeyson took from the back of the plane.

Meanwhile, I was able to help with an area that I love, cooking! Along with a few other ladies, we have been preparing breakfast every day for everyone involved in the week. It's been tiring to get up at 5:30 to have everything prepared and served by 7 am, but also very rewarding to be able to do something practical that can be part of bringing new missionaries to the field. These are some of the Venezuelans. The man next to me is their pastor, who came along to support the men in their church who are considering this calling.

Jeyson has also been busy this week with something he loves, maintenance projects. He has been repairing the wing of this plane

And also repainting it, which I will have to post "after" pictures later.

More posts to follow soon!